Alaska Adventure: Trip to Cordova Alaska

I had the opportunity to take a 2 day trip to Cordova Alaska for work. Once the work was done I had several hours to explore and take a few pictures.

Cordova is a small town located on the east side of Prince William Sound with a population around 2200. Cordova is mainly a commercial fishing town, with the famous copper river red salmon coming from the mouth of the copper river located just a few miles east of Cordova. Most of the fishing occurs in Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta areas. The fishing has improved since the Exon Valdez oil spill, which severely affected the Salmon and herring. There are no roads in or out of town, you must fly or take the ferry. The trip is well worth it.

Climate in Cordova can be a bit wet at times. I arrived to rain and left in the rain. I did have a few breaks that enabled me to acquire a few pictures.

The boat Harbor was full of boats.

The view from my hotel room.

I knew I wanted to take a drive out to Child's Glacier and the Million Dollar bridge. It is roughly 45 miles from town to the Glacier. The road is mostly gravel but in good shape. The road crosses several bridges as it weaves it's way across the Copper River. This is a really awesome drive as it crosses several different braids of the river.

The road out of town.

Some of the local scenery.

Taking this trip in the evening after a full day of work didn't do it justice. I could have spent a few days taking pictures and exploring. I will be back.

I drove for over an hour stopping and taking pictures. It was after 7 pm and I hadn't saw any other vehicles for some time. I knew I was getting closer to the glacier, but the water was flooding right next to the road sometimes within inches of coming over the road. A few wet spots in the road and I was about to turn back. I really was starting to get worried when I finally came to the campground area. As you get closer to the glacier it disappears due to the trees. When you turn down into the campground and it appears, it will take your breath away. Such an awesome place. Only one family camping in the campground so I had the place almost to myself.

I sat there for over 2 hours enjoying the view and trying to catch the glacier calving with my camera. I saw lots of ice fall, but catching it on camera was really tough. The ice would crack at times that was as loud as someone firing a gun. If you look at the picture below you can see the water splash up from a large chunk of ice that had fell off the glacier. This made waves in the water that at times would reach the bank on my side of the river.

Wave heading toward the shore from ice that had fell into the water. There is no camping on the beach due to the risk of a large wave hitting the area. There was one wave that came 5-6 feet up the beach. I saw a video of a surfer who tried to surf one of the larger waves. Crazy!

A view of the Million Dollar bridge (Miles Glacier bridge) from the Child's Glacier campground. The million dollar bridge was built in the early 1900's for the railroad to bring copper from the Kennicott mine. The bridge got it's nick name due to the fact it cost over a million dollars to build it. This expensive bridge made it possible to bring over 200 million dollars worth of copper out of the Kennicott area. Sounds like a reasonable investment.